YONKERS  HISTORICAL  AND  LIBRARY 
ASSOCIATION. 


Hpngieg  of 


BY  R0N.  T.  ASTLEY  ATKINS. 

}HRHZ]i  IS, 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2014 


http://archive.org/details/indianwarsuprisiOOatki 


Indian  Wars  and  the  Uprising  of 
1 655— Yonkers  Depopulated. 


A  PAPER  READ  BEFORE  THE  YONKERS  HISTORICAL 
AND  LIBRARY  ASSOCIATION 

BY 

Hon.  T.  ASTLEY  ATKINS, 

March  18,  1892. 


YONKERS : 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE  SOCIETY. 

MDCCC.XCII. 


m 

AS 


INDIAN  WARS  AND  THE  UPRISING  OF  1655. 


"Upon  ye  maine,  by  the  river  commonly  called  by  the 
Indians  Aquehung,  otherwise  Broncke  River,"  there  lived 
a  few  settlers,  also  upon  the  Harlem  Eiver  and  the  creek 
called  "Spiting  Devil"  by  the  Dutch,  were  to  be  found  a 
number  of  farmers.  Up  the  valley  of  Tibbett's  Brook  and 
on  the  east  bank  of  the  Hudson  still  others  ventured,  Avhile 
along  the  Sound  and  the  East  River  there  were,  upon  "ye 
maine"  land,  scanty  settlements  prior  to  the  eventful 
years  and  w^ars  we  chronicle.  But  the  records  of  these 
settlements  are  scarce,  and  he  who  would  but  dig  in  this 
often  disturbed  ground  will  find  but  little  consolation- 
Much  of  the  sparseness  of  records  arises  from  the  fact  that 
the  country  was  so  thinly  peopled  that  they  had  but  little 
history  to  transmit  and  also  because  "ye  maine"  at  this 
date  was  usually  yoked  to  the  island  of  the  "Manhattoes," 
at  the  opposite  end  of  which  in  those  days  lay  the  great 
city  of  the  New  Netherland,  New  Amsterdam.  Ten  years 
later  than  the  time  at  which  our  account  opens,  historical 
records  became  more  numerous,  and  after  the  Indian  mas- 
sacre of  sixteen  hundred  and  fifty-five  the  island  took  more 
notice  of  the  main  land.  The  southernmost  portion  of 
Westchester  County  lying  between  the  Sound,  the  Hudson 
and  the  Harlem  Rivers,  was,  at  this  date,  virtually  a  wil- 
derness. It  was  subdivided  by  little  streams,  which  were, 
as  far  as  possible,  utilized  as  public  highways  and  also 
served  as  boundary  hues  for  parcels  of  land  granted  to 
patroon  or  settler.  To  the  casual  observer  this  tract  was 
to  all  appearance  a  veritable  wilderness,  for  it  was  densely 
wooded  and  had  no  roads,  and  indeed  contained  but  few 
open  spaces.  There  were,  however,  paths  or  trails  of  one 
kind  or  another  through  the  woods  from  one  settled  patch 


4 


to  another.  These  paths  were  but  seldom  used,  and  there 
was,  in  fact,  but  little  communication  of  any  kind  between 
the  settlers. 

About  this  time  there  was  held  upon  the  island  some  sort 
of  a  popular  convention,  in  which  our  county,  however, 
took  no  part,  so  much  more  important  were  the  Long  Is- 
land towns  which  sent  delegates.  We  find,  at  the  time 
the  wars  commenced  with  the  Indians,  scattered  through 
the  public  records,  a  few  names  of  families  who  then  dwelt 
upon  "ye  maine;"  but,  a  little  later,  and  about  the  time  of 
the  "massacre,"  there  appears  evidence  of  a  rapidly  grow- 
ing settlement  of  the  Younckers  and  other  Westchester 
County  plantations. 

The  situation  may  be  briefly  summed  up  as  follows  : 
The  Indians,  as  owners,  had  already  been  crowded  off 
Manhattan  Island,  but  they  dwelt  in  considerable  numbers 
thereon  by  permission  of  the  Dutch.  A  like  state  of  things 
was  existent  upon  Long  Island.  Upon  the  main  land 
north  of  the  Harlem  they  still  lived  in  many  an  ancestral 
nook  and  in  many  an  out-of-the-way  corner.  Cowed, 
crowded,  watchful,  many  inclined  to  great  friendliness, 
others  full  of  wrath  and  determination  to  repossess  their 
fair  fields  and  fisheries. 

Along  the  Hudson,  and  stretching  across  the  land  far 
away  on  either  side  of  it,  were  other  Indian  settlements, 
usually  peacefully  inclined  so  far  as  the  Dutch  settlers 
were  concerned,  but  at  strife  often  with  other  dusky  tribes. 

Upon  Manhattan  Island,  and  presumably  upon  the 
Van  der  Donck  plantation  to  the  north  of  it,  the  Indians 
had  been  accustomed  to  free  access  to  streets  and  farms 
and  in  some  instances  to  the  houses.  No  doubt  they 
thought  that  if  the  white  settler  could  enter  upon  their 
close  and  take  home  their  rabbit  or  their  fish,  they,  too, 
had  equal  right  to  poach  upon  his  domain.  We  shall  see. 
It  may  not  be  amiss  to  note  here  a  few  facts  as  to  these 
aboriginal  owners  of  our  manor  and  county. 

Mr.  Bancroft,  in  his  history  says  that  the  country 
between  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut  River  and  the  Hud- 
son, was  possessed  by  independent  villages  of  the  Mohe- 


o 

gans,  kindred  with  the  Manhattans  of  New  York  Island, 
and  that  the  Algonkin  dialect  was  the  most  widely  diffused 
and  was  used  by  our  local  tribes.  It  is  further  stated  that 
at  the  time  of  English  colonization  the  Algonkins,  from 
Hudson's  Bay  to  Carolina,  numbered  ninety  thousand. 
Speaking  of  the  Algonkin  dialect,  one  authority  says  that 
it  was  "prodigal  of  its  consonants"  and  its  style  abounded 
in  "noble  metaphors." 

Ruttenber,  in  his  invaluable  book  upon  the  North  River 
Indians,  says  that  our  local  Indians  were,  in  times  of  war, 
under  rigid  martial  law,  and  that  to  begin  a  war  was  called 
by  them  "taking  up  the  hatchet,"  but  this  could  only  be 
declared  "for  most  just  and  important  reasons."  First 
there  would  be  an  address  as  follows:  "  The  bones  of  your 
murdered  countrymen  lie  uncovered,  they  demand  revenge 
at  our  hands,  and  it  is  our  duty  to  obey  them;  their  spirits 
loudly  call  upon  us  and  we  must  satisfy  them.  Still  greater 
spirits  watching  over  our  honor  inspire  us  with  a  resolu- 
tion to  go  in  pursuit  of  the  murderers  of  our  brethren. 
Let  us  go  and  devour  them.  Do  not  sit  inactive.  Follow 
the  impulse  of  your  hereditary  valor.  Anoint  your  hair. 
Paint  your  faces.  Fill  your  quivers.  Make  the  woods 
echo  with  your  voices.  Comfort  the  spirits  of  the  deceased 
and  revenge  their  blood."  After  this  address  weapons  of 
war  were  collected,  pouches  of  parched  corn  and  maple 
sugar  were  prepared  and  the  warriors  painted  their  bodies. 
Then  followed  the  war  dance  and  war  song: 

"0  poor  me 

"Who  am  going  out  to  fight  the  enemy, 
"And  know  not  whether  I  shall  return  again 
"To  enjoy  the  embraces  of  my  children 
"And  my  wife. 
"0  poor  creature ! 

"Whose  life  is  not  in  his  own  hands 

*       *       *       *       *       4f       *  -» 

"Suffer  me  to  return  again  to  my  children, 

"To  my  wife 

"And  to  my  relations. 

"Take  pity  on  me  and  preserve  my  life 

"And  I  will  make  thee  a  sacrifice." 


6 

The  lives  of  prisoners  taken  in  war  were  rarely  spared, 
except  those  of  women  and  children.  Male  prisoners  were 
subjected  to  great  torture,  usually  by  fire.  Ruttenber  says 
of  our  local  Indians:  "More  sinned  against  than  sinning 
they  left  behind  them  evidences  of  great  wrongs  suffered, 
their  enemies  being  the  witnesses."  And,  further  on,  he 
remarks  that  "Law  and  justice,  as  civilized  nations  under- 
stand them,  were  to  them  unknown." 

Speaking  of  the  Indian  troubles  between  the  years  six- 
teen hundred  and  forty-two  and  sixteen  hundred  and  fifty- 
five,  Governor  Stuyvesant  said  with  great  truth  and  much 
bitterness  that  "the  Dutch  were  clearly  at  fault." 

The  Indian  Totems,  or  Symbols,  on  the  Hudson  River  he- 
low  Wappingers,  were,  among  some  tribes,  the  Wolf,  and, 
among  others,  the  Bear.  North  of  the  Manhattoes  of  the 
island  there  were,  upon  the  main  land  of  Westchester,  the 
villages  of  Saeck  Kill,  Wickquaeskeck,  Alipkonk  and 
Sint  Sinck,  while,  as  far  north  as  the  Croton,  lived  the 
Kitchanongs.  The  Wickquaeskeck s  had  several  castles 
between  the  Hudson  at  Dobbs  Ferry,  and  Nor  walk,  on 
Long  Island  Sound 

We  find  early  complaints  that  the  traders  sold  the  In- 
dians all  the  guns  and  powder  they  called  for  or  could  pay 
for. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  settlement  the  wrongs  of  the 
Indians  were  often  promptly  redressed,  an  instance  being 
given  in  Smith's  History  of  New  York,  as  follows: 

"When  the  Dutch  began  settlements  upon  the  banks 
of  the  Hudson  the  country  adjacent  was  in  subjection  to 
the  "Five  Nations',  and  as  early  as  the  year  sixteen  hun- 
dred and  twenty-two  the  imprisonment  of  the  Chief  of  the 
Sequins  aroused  the  Mohicans  to  that  extent  that  the  of- 
fending agent  of  the  Dutch  was  compelled  to  leave  the 
country. " 

As  we  shall  see,  it  was  later  the  old  policy  of  the  devil, 
who,  when  sick,  would  be  a  Saint,  but,  when  well  again, 
"the  devil  a  Saint  was  he."  Our  inoffensive  Dutchmen, 
when  few  in  numbers  and  weak  in  arms,  were  good  enough 
to  the  natives  and  dwelt  many  a  year  in  peace  with  them. 


7 


but  when  numbers  increased  and  new  farms  were  needed, 
and  the  thrif  ty  Dutchman  felt  strong,  then  trouble  began,  and 
as  Peter  Stuyvesant  said,  "the  Dutch  were  clearly  at  fault." 

Now  this  greed  for  land  which  was  not  their  own  was 
really  at  the  bottom  of  most  of  the  quarrels  between  the 
Dutch  and  the  natives.  Finding  that  public  sentiment  at 
home  would  not  be  in  their  favor  if  they  stole  outright  the 
farms,  hunting  and  fishing  grounds  of  the  Indians  as  well 
as  their  forests,  the  crafty  Dutchman  of  the  Manhattoes 
and  the  main  land  devised  a  scheme  of  legal  robbery  which 
worked  just  as  successfully  in  the  long  run  and  at  the 
same  time  placated  critics  and  their  High  Mightinesses  at 
home.  For  instance,  in  the  year  sixteen  hundred  and  thirty- 
nine  certain  alleged  Indian  owners  of  Kekeshick  conveyed 
to  the  Dutch  company  a  large  tract  of  land  which  sounds 
in  description  at  least,  pretty  near  home  being,  say  the  Al- 
bany records,  "lands  which  He  over  against  the  flats  of 
the  island  of  the  Manhates,  to  wit:  by  the  great  Kill."  In 
sixteen  hundred  and  forty -six  Sachem  Tackarew  conveyed 
land  upon  ye  maine  to  Adriaen  Van  der  Donck.  Tackarew, 
be  it  noted,  hailed  from  Jersey.  Somehow  or  other,  when 
a  Dutchman  wanted  a  new  farm,  he  now  always  found  a 
convenient  Indian  to  make  his  totem  on  the  precious  sheep- 
skin. 

Nor  was  the  land-grabbing  of  the  Dutch  their  only  crime, 
for  we  are  told  that  in  sixteen  hundred  and  forty-five  ' £  the 
town  of  New  Amsterdam  was  largely  given  up  to  the  sale 
of  brandy,  tobacco  and  beer  throughout  the  streets.  Every 
advantage  was  taken  by  the  Dutch.  The  Indians  were 
employed  as  servants  and  defrauded  of  their  wages;  they 
were  induced  to  drink,  and,  while  intoxicated,  were  robbed 
of  their  furs  and  the  goods  they  had  purchased.  They  were 
angry  at  the  price  paid  for  their  lands  by  the  Dutch." 

On  the  other  side,  the  wily  Dutchmen  alleged  that  the 
Indians  had  killed  their  cows,  horses  and  hogs,  and  had 
cruelly  murdered  ten  persons  in  as  many  years,  and  that 
the  murderers  had  been  demanded  from  the  Indians,  but 
that  they  had  refused  to  deliver  them  to  the  authorities. 

If  half  of  the  charges  against  our  stolid  and  withal 


8 


pious  Dutch  ancestors  were  true,  they  must  have  been  mon- 
sters, indeed.  In  the  Holland  Documents  will  be  found  a 
letter  from  one  John  Onderhill,  in  which  he  states  one  of 
the  reasons  for  the  war  we  are  about  to  chronicle.  He 
says:  "But  a  great  portion  of  the  lands  which  we  occupy 
being  as  yet  unpaid  for,  the  Indians  come  daily  and  com- 
plain that  they  have  been  deceived  by  the  Dutch  Secretary, 
etc."  They  bought  the  Indians'  lands,  occupied  them  and 
failed  to  pay  for  the  greater  or  a  great  proportion  of  them. 
They  sold  goods  to  the  Indians,  got  them  drunk  and  took 
back  the  goods.  They  cheated  them  out  of  their  wages. 
They  robbed  them  of  their  furs.  And  the  gentle  worm 
turned  at  last.  The  mild-tempered  inhabitants  of  the  main 
and  island  who  had  trusted  the  Dutchman  and  shared  their 
land  with  him  turned  and  in  ten  years  made  way  with  ten 
Dutchmen.  Had  the  Indians  taken  the  Dutchmen's  house 
and  land  and  stolen  his  bought  goods  and  furs,  does  any 
one  who  knows  what  these  immigrants  from  Holland  and 
England  were,  suppose  that  only  ten  Indians  would  have 
been  slaughtered  in  ten  years  ?  The  record  of  other  colonies 
forbids  the  belief. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  some  of  the  events  of  the  few  years 
prior  to  the  massacre  of  sixteen  hundred  and  fifty-five, 
which  left  scarce  a  settler  upon  our  hills  and  meadows. 
As  early  as  sixteen  hundred  and  forty-one  the  New 
York  Civil  List  says  ' '  troubles  with  the  Indians  and  com- 
plications with  the  English  now  began  to  seriously  em- 
barrass the  colony. "  It  was  in  this  latter  year  that  Director 
Kieft  called  the  first  popular  assemblage  "to  consider 
Indian  troubles."  This  convention  was  reconvened  the 
next  year  for  the  same  purpose.  It  may  be  noted  that 
this  war  closed  three  years  after  this  latter  session  and 
that  Oloff  Van  Cortlandt  was  one  of  the  Commis- 
sioners who  concluded  a  treaty  of  peace  with  the  Manhat- 
tans. 

It  is  stated  in  various  histories  that  in  the  year  of  the 
first  convention  the  Dutch  attacked  the  unarmed  Indians 
at  Pavonia.  It  is  said  that  they  were  the  North  River  In- 
dians, the  Weckquaeskecks,  from  Dobbs  Ferry,  and  the 


Tappans,  from  Piermont,  who  had  fled  from  Manhattan 
Island.  One  authority  says  that  "the  naked  and  un- 
suspecting tribes  could  offer  little  resistance;  the  noise  of 
musketry  mingled  with  the  yells  of  the  victims,  and  nearly 
one  hundred  Indians  perished  in  the  carnage.  Men 
might  be  seen  mangled  and  helpless,  suffering  from 
cold  and  hunger.  Children  were  tossed  into  the  stream, 
and,  as  their  parents  plunged  to  their  rescue,  the  soldiers 
prevented  their  landing,  that  both  parent  and  child  might 
drown."  In  addition  to  these  wanton  murders,  thirty  In- 
dians were  killed  at  Corlears  Hook,  on  Manhattan  Is- 
land, while  asleep.  O'Callaghan,  in  his  history  of  the 
New  Netherlands,  says  "this  estranged  the  Long  Island 
Indians,  who  foimecl  an  alliance  with  the  North  River 
Indians.  Every  settler  they  laid  bands  on  was  mur- 
dered." 

The  next  year  we  find  it  recorded  that  seven  Long  Is- 
land Indian  prisoners  were  "turned  over  to  Underbill's 
Company  of  Dutch  and  English  by  the  English  Minister 
Fordham  at  Hempstead.  Three  of  the  seven  were  killed 
(unarmed)  in  a  cellar,  two  were  towed  in  the  water  until 
drowned,  two  were  brutally  murdered  by  soldiers  at  Fort 
Amsterdam."    It  was  alleged  that  they  were  pig  stealers. 

The  "war"  lasted  about  five  years,  and  an  eminent 
authority  estimates  that  the  Dutchmen  killed  during  that 
time  some  sixteen  hundred  Indians.  On  the  white  side  of 
the  question  it  is  written  that  ' '  the  Dutch  pointed  to  piles 
of  ashes  from  burnt  houses,  barns,  barracks  and  other 
buildings  and  the  bones  of  cattle."  "Our  fields  lie  fallow 
and  waste,  our  dwellings  and  other  buildings  are  burnt, 
all  this  through  a  foolish  hankering  after  war,  for  it  is 
known  to  all  right-thinking  men  here  that  these  In- 
dians have  lived  as  lambs  among  us  until  a  few-  years 
ago,  injuring  no  one  and  affording  every  assistance  to  our 
nation,"  says  one  of  the  most  veracious  of  Dutch  histories 
of  these  times. 

After  the  so-called  treaty  of  peace  there  seems  to  have 
been  a  period  of  quiet,  so  far  as  Westchester  and  Manhattan 
Island  were  concerned.    That  is  to  say,  there  was  a  period 


LO 


in  which  but  little  burning  or  slaughter  occurred,  compared 
to  the  troublous  time  we  have  spoken  of.  But  there  was 
evil  intent  upon  both  sides  and  each  side  awaited  with  ill- 
concealed  venom  for  the  revenge. 

Mr.  Bolton  gives  a  quotation  from  the  protest  of  the 
Eight  Men  or  council  concerning  one  treaty  of  peace,  which 
it  is  well  to  give  in  full,  for  it  shows  the  value  put  upon  an 
alleged  "treaty  of  peace."  In  the  year  sixteen  hundred 
and  forty-four  they  protested  that  ' '  a  semblance  of  peace 
was  attempted  to  be  patched  up  last  Spring  with  two  or 
three  tribes  of  savages  towards  the  north  by  a  stranger, 
whom  we,  for  cause,  shall  not  now  name,  without  one  of 
the  Company's  servants  having  been  present,  while  our 
principle  enemies  have  been  unmolested.  This  peace  hath 
borne  little  fruit  for  the  common  advantage  and  reputation 
of  our  lords;  for  so  soon  as  these  savages  had  stowed  away 
their  maize  into  holes,  they  began  again  to  murder  our 
people  in  various  directions.  They  rove  in  parties  contin- 
ually around  day  and  night  on  the  Island  of  Manhattaus, 
slaying  our  folks,  not  a  thousand  paces  from  the  forts,  and 
'tis  now  arrived  at  such  a  pass  that  no  one  dare  move  a 
foot  to  fetch  a  stick  of  fire  wood  with  out  a  strong  escort." 
The  next  year  our  Adriean  van  der  Donck  and  others 
furnished  the  needful  to  buy  of  for  a  season  the  "  Mohegans" 
or  "Mahicanders." 

It  will  amuse  and  instruct  even  the  most  casual  reader  to 
look  through  one  of  these  so-called  Indian  conveyances  and 
one  is  chosen  at  random  from  the  Book  of  Patents,  as  cited 
by  Bolton;  it  runs  thus: 

"  Beginning  at  the  south  side  of  a  creek  called  Bisightick, 
and  so  ranging  along  Hudson's  Eiver,  southerly  to  a  creek 
or  fall  called  by  the  Indians  Weghquesike,  and  by  the 
Christians  called  Lawrence's  Plantation,  and  from  the 
mouth  of  said  creek  or  fall  upon  a  due  east  course,  to  a 
creek  called  by  the  Indians  Nippiran  and  by  the  Christians 
Youncker's  Kill;  and  from  thence  along  the  west  side  of 
the  said  creek  or  kill,  as  the  same  runs  to  lands  formerly 
bought."  In  presence  of  Emient,  Sachem  of  Siapham, 
signed  by  Kictawough  and  others,  consideration  for  this 


11 


magnificent  plot,  and  this,  it  may  be  said,  was  many  years 
after  the  wars  jnst  related,  was  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
four  yards  of  wampum,  twelve  blankets,  twelve  kettles, 
ten  guns,  fifty  pounds  of  powder,  thirty  bars  of  lead,  twelve 
shirts,  twelve  pair  of  stockings,  thirty  bows,  eight  fathom 
of  water  cloth,  eight  coates,  fifty  knives,  twenty  boxes,  two 
ankers  of  rum,  two  and  a  half  vats  of  beere,  three  drawing 
knives,  two  coopers  adds,  ten  yearthen  jugs  and  ten  axis." 

Patience  with  the  North  River  Indians  had  ceased  to  be  a 
virtue.  They  had  been  plundered,  deceived,  murdered  in 
cold  and  in  hot  blood  by  the  settlers  who  bought  their  lands 
for  a  few  yards  of  wampum  and  a  lot  of  pots,  kettles  and 
rum.  So  the  weary  decade  of  the  forties  had  worn  itself 
out  and  left  a  record  of  which  civilization  may  well  be 
ashamed.  But  one  thing  may  be  said  of  our  Dutch  ances- 
try, which  cannot  be  said  of  our  English  or  Spanish  settlers, 
and  that  is  that  there  was  no  pretence  of  religion  in  the 
Dutch  aggression.  It  wras  not  the  bible  in  one  hand  and 
the  sword  in  the  other,  but  the  Dutchman  bought  or  stole 
the  land  and  the  Indians  starved,  died  or  moved  on,  the 
Dutchmen  did  not  allege  the  necessity  of  his  conversion, 
but  called  the  Indian  a  Duyvil  and  treated  him  with  the 
same  distinquished  courtesy  that  their  more  refined  progeny 
do  at  the  present  day.  In  these  days  anything  that  was 
black  passed  for  a  devil,  either  on  the  earth  or  in  the  depths 
of  the  nether  world. 

The  early  years  of  the  fifties  w^ere  rather  quieter  than 
the  last  of  the  forties.  In  the  early  portion  of  the 
year  sixteen  hundred  and  fifty -five,  contemporary 
records  show  conclusively  that  there  were  a  very 
considerable  number  of  farmers  on  the  main  land 
north  of  the  Harlem  River,  but  the  sweep  of  the  In- 
dian tempest  of  that  year  cleaned  out  man  and  beast 
and  destroyed  much  evidence  regarding  the  settlement  at 
Yonkers. 

One  of  the  most  concise  reports  of  the  rising  of  this  year 
may  be  found  in  O'Callaghan's  History  and  is  as  follows  : 
"  A  party  of  savages,  Mohegans  and  others  from  Esopus, 
Hackingsaack,  Tappaan,  Stamford  and  Onkeway,  as  far 


12 


east  as  Connecticut,  estimated  by  some  to  amount  to  nine- 
teen hundred  in  number,  from  five  hundred  to  eighteen 
hundred  of  whom  were  armed,  landed  suddenly  before 
daybreak  (September  15th)  in  sixty-four  canoes  at  New 
Amsterdam,  and.  whilst  the  greater  part  of  the  inhabitants 
were  still  buried  in  sleep,  scattered  themselves  through  the 
streets  and  burst  into  several  of  the  houses  on  pretence  of 
looking  for  Indians  from  the  north,  but  in  reality  to  avenge 
the  death  of  a  squaw  whom  Van  Dyck,  the  late  Attorney- 
General  had  killed  for  stealing  a  few  peaches/' 

They  shot  Van  Dyck  in  the  breast  with  an  arrow,  and 
immediately  the  little  town  was  wild  with  excitement  and 
terror.  The  military  being  called  from  the  fort,  attacked 
the  savages,  and  drove  them  to  their  canoes.  The  Indians 
sailed  across  the  Hudson  to  the  village  of  Pav<  mia  and  set 
it  on  fire,  and  took  as  prisoners  a  large  number  of  women 
and  children. 

Upon  the  mainland  there  was  a  panic  and  all  who  ^ould 
fled  to  Manhattan  Island  to  put  themselves  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  soldiers.  Property  counted  for  but  little  in 
those  terrible  hours.  It  is  remarked  by  one  writer  that  "a 
visitation  so  dreadful  spread  consternation  abroad.  All 
the  country  people  except  Amesspoort,  Breucklen  and  Mid- 
wont  and  the  negro  hamlets  took  wing  and  fled  to  the 
Manhattans."  In  fact,  as  far  up  as  Esopus  the  settlers 
abandoned  their  farms. 

The  prisoners  were  carried  north  and  held  by  the  Weck- 
quaeskecks  and  Highland  Indians.  These  poor  women  and 
children  must  then  have  been  held  by  the  Indians  in  that 
region  just  to  the  north  and  north-east  of  the  City  of  Yon- 
kers.    We  need  not  here  recount  the  fate  which  befell  many. 

It  is  said  that  during  the  three  days  this  storm  raged,  the 
Dutch  lost  one  hundred  people  who  were  killed  or  maimed; 
and  that  fully  one  hundred  and  fifty  were  carried  off  into 
captivity;  and  that  twenty-eight  farms  and  plantations 
were  devastated  and  three  hundred  people  driven  away 
from  their  burned  and  ravaged  homes.  The  damage,  as 
estimated  in  money,  was  alleged  to  be  about  eighty  thou- 
sand dollars. 


L3 


To  the  north  of  us  the  Indians  took  their  revenge  almost 
in  kind.  At  Esopus,  in  revenge  for  the  slaughter  of  their 
people  by  one  Sergeant  Stoll,  the  Ir  dians  burned  houses, 
barns  and  harvest,  and  killed  horses  and  cattle.  "  They 
tied  their  Dutch  captives  to  stakes  around  a  fire,  tore  off 
the  nails  of  victims,  bit  off  their  fingers,  crushed  their  fin- 
gers between  stones,  scorched  their  skin  with  fire  brands, 
cut  pieces  of  flesh  from  their  bodies,  and  as  they  died 
tossed  their  bodies  into  the  flames." 

"Prowling  bands  of  savages  flitted  in  and  out  of  the 
woods.  The  whole  country  (about  the  Hudson  Eiver)  was 
struck  with  horror,"  says  another  authority.  But  who 
shall  judge  the  Indian  of  that  year  harshly  ? 

There  is  little  doubt  that  our  Westchester  Indians  took  a 
very  active  part  in  the  so-called  Massacre  of  1655.  After 
the  retreat  of  the  Indians  to  their  1'astnesses  it  is  recorded 
that  the  settlers  gradually  returned  to  their  "avocations," 
which  means  probably  that  the  farmers  returned  to  what 
was  left  of  their  farms  and  did  the  best  they  c^uld  with 
them. 

Peter  Stuyvesant,  in  a  letter  of  his  written  to  Holland 
after  the  restoration  of  peace  and  quiet  here,  speaks  of  our 
own  dear  Yonkers  plantation  as  ' £  the  lands  of  old  Verdonck 
(meaning  Adrian  Van  der  Donck),  divided  and  settled  by 
his  children  and  associates  in  various  plantations  and 
farms ;  but  who,  in  the  massacre,  were  absconded  with 
many  others  ;  all  which  lands  are  situated  here  and  border- 
ing on  our  island,  only  divided  by  a  small  creek  which  in 
some  places  by  low  water  is  passable." 

And  so  the  Yonkers  plantation  was  again  opened  to  set- 
tlement, and  again  the  Indian  was  pushed  back.  Perhaps 
after  this  the  wily  Dutchman  gave  him  a  better  price  for 
his  land. 

Authorities  used  in  this  paper  : 

Bancroft's  "History  of  the  United  States." 
Ruttenber's  "North  River  Indians." 
New  York  Civil  List. 
Albany  Records. 


14 


Bolton's  "History  of  Westchester  County." 
O'Callaghan's  "History  of  the  New  Netherlands." 
Holland  Documents. 

Documents  relating  to  the  Colonial  History,  etc.,  etc. 
Mrs.  Lamb's  "History  of  New  York." 
Smith's  "History  of  New  York." 


} 


